![]() 5:21) and hence, if He is now at the right hand of God in the glory, it is the everlasting proof that every question of our sins and sin has been settled that all the claims of God's holiness have been met and satisfied that indeed God has been so satisfied (for indeed He was fully glorified in that death), that His response to what was then wrought is seen in the place which He has accorded to Him who died. 10:4.) And a glorified Christ is the assurance of this for when He died He bare our sins in His own body on the tree yea, He was made sin for us (1 Peter 2:24 2 Cor. 3:21-22, etc.) for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. ![]() It was also the ministry of righteousness for instead of requiring righteousness from man, as the law did, it proclaims God's righteousness revealed in the gospel (see Rom. Such was the subject of the apostle's ministry, the ministry of the Spirit for it was performed in the power of that Spirit who came down on the day of Pentecost as the witness of accomplished redemption, and of the glory of Christ. The knowledge of this position is brought to us by the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God for, says the apostle, "we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord" (4:4-5)-that is, Christ glorified at the right hand of God. 15) but we behold the glory of the Lord without a wail so that our position corresponds rather with that of Moses when he went into the tabernacle to speak with Jehovah. This is brought out by a contrast with Israel: "When Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart" (v. What we are taught is, that believers are now brought into the very presence of the glory of the Lord - they behold it with unveiled face. It is summed up for us in the 18th verse: "We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord." The words, "as in a glass," interfere with the clearness of the statement, having been added from a misconception of the force of the word employed. Hence, too, we get in this parenthesis, and the 18th verse, a further contrast between the position occupied by Israel under the law, and that occupied by believers under grace and it is with this position, and its consequences and responsibilities, that we desire in this paper especially to be occupied. 7.) whereas by the gospel is the knowledge of accomplished righteousness, and of a Christ in glory. By the law was the knowledge of sin, and resulting condemnation and death (Rom. ![]() In these terms we have indeed the essential characteristics of the two dispensations contrasted. 7, 9) the latter of "the Spirit" and of "righteousness." (vv. The parenthesis springs out of the contrast between "the letter" and "the spirit " the former - the law, in fact - being a "ministration of death" and of "condemnation" (vv. But when he says in the next clause, "And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty," he speaks of the Holy Ghost because he is now speaking of the power by which Christ glorified is apprehended, and the liberty into which we are consequently brought. In other words, he teaches us that the Spirit that runs through and underlies "the letter" is a glorified Christ. not the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit of the "New Testament," which he thus identifies with the Lord - the glorified Christ. 5, 6) and then he adds, "Now the Lord is that Spirit" (v. Thus the apostle says, "Our sufficiency is of God who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life" (vv. 5, 6.) We have then a parenthesis which extends to the close of the 16th verse so that for the connection we must read the 17th verse after the 6th, though it is evident that the parenthetical passage contributes, by the contrast therein drawn between the "ministry of condemnation" and the "ministry of righteousness," to further the general argument. 14), the apostle points out the source of his qualification for his work, and the character of his ministry. After speaking of his own special relationship, through his ministry, to the believers at Corinth (vv. ![]() We have a remarkable series of contrasts in the third chapter of this epistle, designed to exhibit the perfect place of blessing in which we are set in Christ. ![]()
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